U.S. Steel starts clock on labour stoppage

CLOCK TICKING

The clock is ticking toward a U.S. Steel strike or lockout in Hamilton.

The company triggered the countdown Wednesday by asking for a provincial conciliator after four months of negotiations with United Steelworkers Local 1005.

In an announcement on its website, the union advised members of the development, explaining once a conciliation officer is appointed he or she will try to bring the sides together. If that effort fails, the officer will issue a "no board" report. That puts either side in a strike or lockout position after 17 days.

That means, for example, if a no board report is issued next Friday, there could be picket lines in front of the company's Hamilton plant by Oct. 17.

The company and union have been trying to reach a new agreement since May. The old contract expired at the end of July.

The key stumbling block remains the company's demand to end pension indexing and convert the existing defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution scheme.

In an e-mail, union president Rolf Gerstenberger said the company's decision to start the lockout clock reflects the attitude it has taken to all of its Canadian operations.

"This is part of U.S. Steel not living up to their commitments to the federal government and the Investment Canada Act and to the promises that they made to the Stelco workers and pensioners when they seized Stelco," he wrote.

U.S. Steel spokesperson Trevor Harris did not return a call seeking comment. The company has consistently refused to comment on ongoing negotiations.

If talks result in a lockout or strike it could be a long one -- workers at the company's Lake Erie plant in Nanticoke were locked out for eight months before agreeing to a two-tiered pension plan that closes the current defined benefit system to new staff. They're directed to a new defined contribution scheme.

In another early "get tough" sign, the company cancelled pension increases due to more than 8,000 local retirees on Aug. 1. The company said it wasn't required to make the payments of about $10 per $1,000 in pension because the collective agreement had expired.

The union says under Ontario labour law, an employer is barred from changing working conditions laid out in an expired contract until after a provincial conciliator has failed to bring the sides together.

In addition to pension changes, the company wants to cut the cost of living allowance formula so it would pay only 20 per cent of its current increase and reduce maximum vacation time to five weeks from seven.

U.S. Steel has also been sued by the federal government, which alleges the company broke promises to maintain Canadian production and employment made when it was given approval to purchase the former Stelco in 2007. Within a year of the purchase it idled all of its Canadian plants in response to the recession, shifting all production to its American operations.